Circuit-breaker for incandescent-electric-light systems



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

P. MULLER & J. G. GREENE. CIRCUIT BREAKER FOR INGANDESOENT ELEGTRIGLIGHT SYSTEMS.

No. 449,780. Patented Apr. '7, 18791.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

I. MULLER '8: J. G. GREENE. CIRCUIT BREAKER FOR INOANDESGENT ELECTRICLIGHT SYSTEMS.

No. 449,780. Patented Apr. 7,1891.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRIEDERICH MULLER AND JAMES G. GREENE, OF ELIZABETH, NE\V JERSEY.

ClRCUIT-BREAKER FOR lNCANDESCENT-ELECTRlC-LIGHT SYSTEMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 449,780, dated April'7, 1891.

Application filed July 23 l 8 9 0.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that we, FRIEDERICH MULLER and J AMES G. GREENE, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Elizabetl1,in the county of Union andState of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Circuit-Breakers forIneandescentElectric-Light- Systems, of which thefollowing is a specification, reference being had therein to the acroeompanying drawings.

So far as we are aware it is now the custom with persons using electricincandescent lamps for such persons to pay so much monthly or yearly foreach lamp which they may i 5 have in their houses, owing to the want ofan efticient and reliable meter to measure the amount of electriccurrent used; but, as it is necessary for a proper distribution of lightto have a great many more lamps in a house than are ever required at anyone time, man y more lamps are putin and paid for than the user gets thereal benefit of.

Our invention has for its object to provide an automaticcircuit-breaking device for an incandescent-electric-light system, saiddevice being of such character that it will allow a predeterminednumberof lamps to burn without interruption, but will immediately break thecircuit and extinguish the lamps if more than the predetermined numberof lamps are turned on. It will, however, permit the authorized numberof lamps to be immediately relighted by moving a lever or similarmanually-operated device after the surplus lamps have been turned off.

To this end our invention comprises the combination, with anelectric-light system having a series of incandescent lamps connected inmultiple arc, of a circuit-breaking 4o mechanism inclosed in a lockedcasing or housing and controlled by an clectro-magnet in thelamp-circuit and a manually-operated setting or circuit-restoringdevice. The circuit-breaking mechanism, with the exception 4 5 ofaportion of the manually-operated device, is entirely inclosed in thecasing or housing, the interior of which is accessible only toauthorized agents of the eleetric-light company. The controlling orarmature lever is pressed upon by a spring the tension of which may bevaried by a regulating-screw, so that Serial No. 359,646- No model.)

the circuit-breaker may be set for any desired number of lamps, all aswill be hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 illustrates one form of ourinvention in connection with an electric-light system,the lat ter beingrepresented diagram matieally. Fig. 2 is a similar view illustrating aslightly different form of our invention. Figs. 3 and I illustrate othermodifications of our invention. I

In the said drawings, A denotes an electromagnet connected in theelectric-light circuit denoted by the conductors a, the lamps a beingrepresented as being arranged in multi ple are.

B denotes an armature-lever pivoted at Z) and carrying an armature b, soarranged relative to the poles of the electro-magnet as to be drawn incontact therewith when the current is sufficiently strong for thispurpose. The armature l) is held away from the poles of the magnet by aspring 0, attached to a bracket 0 and pressing against one arm of thebell-crank armature-lever, the stress of said spring being varied bymeans of a thumbscrew D.

Referring to Fig. 1, the current entering the electro-maguet passesthence through a conductor 2 to block 3, spring at, tripping-lever 5,and conductor (3 to hand-lever 7, passing through the latter to a block8, with which one of the conductors a is connected. The spring atnormally presses the end (l of the lever 5 against the end (1 of thelever B, and when the parts are arranged as shown in the drawings thelamp-circuit is closed and the lamps lighted. Suppose now the thumbscrewD is so adj ustcd that the stress of the spring 0 is sufficient to holdthe armaturelcvcr in the position shown, oraway from the poles of themagnet when tcn lamps are in operation. It now the eleventh lamp isturned on, the strength of the magnet will be sufficient to attract thearmature b, thus moving the lever B against the stress of the spring 0.This operation is due to the fact that the resistance of the current inthe circuit decreases and the attractive power of the magnet increaseswith an increased number of lamps in the circuit. This movement soon asthe circuit is thus brokenthe mag" net instantly loses its power and thelever B will immediately resume the position shown in the drawings, incontact with the stop-pin 10. If now the surplus lamps be turned off,the parts may be restored to their normal positions to close the circuitby pressing down on the outer end of the lever 7 thus lifting the lever5, and, owing to the fact that the adjacent ends (I d of the levers 5and B are chamfered ofi or rounded on their outer sides, the said lever5 will press the lower arm of the lever B backward until lever 5haspassed it, when thesaid lever B will immediately spring into place, asshown in the drawings. The second breaking-point is between the le= ver7 and the contact-block 8. As soon as the outer end of the lever 7 hasbeen depressed its inner end will be lifted from the block 8, andalthough the lever 5 may be restored to its normal position the circuitwill not be opened until the lever 7 is again in contact with the saidblock 8. This feature of having two breaking-points in thecircuit-breaking device is preferably employed, in that it preventstampering with the circuitbreaker. Thus, in the form of our inventionshown in Fig. 1, if it were not for the second breaking-point betweenthe lever 7 and the block 8, it might be possible for the user toprevent the circuit from being interrupted when an excess of lamps isturned on by weighting the outer end of the lever 7, so that its innerend would be lifted in contact with the lever 5 and thus prevent thelatter lever from moving-down out of contact with the spring 4; but ifthe said lever 7 should be thus weighted it would immediately be liftedfrom contact with the block 8, and thus break the circuit and preventthe current from passing at all to light the lamps.

Although we prefer, for the reasons just given, to employ acircuit-breaking mechanism having two breaking-points, this feature isnot positively essential to the successful operation of our invention,as will be evident by reference to Fig. 2, which shows a circuitbreakingmechanism with but one breakingpoint. In this form of ourinvention thecur.- rent passes from the electro-magnet through the conductor 2, block3, spring 13, projection 14 of breaking or tripping lever 5, spring 15,and block 16 to conductor a and the lamps. Theinner end of themanually-operated setting-lever 7 rests on a coil-spring 17. As theprojection 14 of the breaking or tripping lever 5 connects the springs13 and 15, the circuit will be broken between these springs normalposition, where it is held by the armatore-lever.

Our, automatic circuit-breaker is inclosed in a locked box or housing e,(denoted by dotted lines,) from which a portion of the circuit restoringor setting lever 7 projects, so that the said lever may be operated bythe user of the lamps, to whom the interior of the said locked box orhousingjs not accessible, this being under the control of employs of theelectric-light company only.

Figs. 3 and t show forms of our invention corresponding to Figs. 1 and2, respectively, but with different means for operating thesetting-levers 7. In these modified forms of our invention the saidlevers 7 are entirely inclosed within the locked boxes or housings e andare operated by electro-magnets A, each in a local circuit connectedwith a battery B by conductors a One of the conductors may be attachedto a block 17 and the other connected through block 17 with a spring 18,which latter may be pressedinto contact with the said block to close thelocal circuit by forcingin a push-button 19, which is accessible fromthe exterior of the box.

Thus it will be understood that the forms of the manually-operateddevices by which the tripping-levers 5 may be set to restore thelamp-circuits to relight the lamps may be varied, the essential featureof this part of our invention being that these devices are so arrangedas to be accessible to the user of the lamps, to whom the interior ofthe locked box or housing inclosing the lamp-circuit breaker is notaccessible. It will therefore be apparent that by the use of ourcircuit-breaker properly connected in an incandescent electric-lightsystem a house may be wired for any desired number of lamps, and acircuitbreaker may be so adjusted that any predetermined number of suchlamps may be used at any one time; but if a larger number be turned onthe circuit will be automatically broken and all of the lamps will beextinguished, and it will be impossible to relight them until thesurplus lamps are turned 01f. Thus the system of lamps may be graded insuch a way that a user having a large number of lamps in his housecan,by determining how many of such lamps he may desire to use Torestore the cir- ICC atany' one time,-arrange to pay for much lessnumber than he may deem necessary or convenient to distribute throughhis house for convenience in exceptional instances or for occasionaluse.

lVe do not wish to be understood as limiting our invention to thespecific forms of circuit-breaking devicesherein shown, 'as it will beobvious that the details of construction of such devices may be variedwidely without departing from the spirit otf our invention.

Having thus described our invention, we claim and desire to secure byLetters latent 1. An electric-lighting system comprising a circuithaving a number of incandescent lamps connected in multiple are,combined with a circuit-breaking mechanism consisting of anelectro-magnet connected in the lamp circuit, an armature-levercontrolled by said magnet, a circuit-ln'eaking device controlled by saidarmature-lever, a box or housing within which the circuit-breakingmechanism is inclosed, and a manual setting device or lever for the saidcircuit-breaking device, said manual setting device or lever being soarranged as to be accessible to an operator not having access to theinterior of the said box or housing.

2. An electric-lighting system comprising a circuit having a number ofincandescent lamps connected in multiple are, combined with acircuit-breaking mechanism consisting of an electro-magnet connected inthe lam p-circuit, an armature-lever controlled by said magnet, a springacting on the said armature-lever, an ad justing-screw for regulatingthe stress of the said spring, a circuit breaking device controlled bysaid armaturelever, a box or housing within which the circuit-breakingmechanism is inclosed, a manual setting device to act on the saidcircuitbreaking device to restore the circuit, said manual settingdevice being so arranged as to be accessible to an operator not havingaccess to the interior of the said box or housing.

An electric-lighting system comprising a circuit having a number ofincandescent lamps connected in multiple arc and a circuitbreaker havingtwo breaking-points, one of which is controlled by an electro-magnet ina lamp-circuit and the other by a manuallyoperated circuit-restoringdevice.

4:. The combination, with an electric-lighting circuit, of alamp-regulating device consistin g of a circuit-breaker having twobreaking-points, one of which is controlled to break the circuit by aneleetro-magnet in the lampcircuit and the other of which is controlledby a manually-operated device or hand-lever by which the parts of thebreaker are replaced to restore or open the circuit.

5. The combination, with an electric-light circuit, of a lamp-regulatingdevice consisting of a circuit-breaker having two breakingpoints, one ofwhich is controlled to break the circuit by an electro-magnet in thelamp-circuit, and the other of which is controlled by a manualcircuit-restoring device, said circuitbreaker being inclosed in ahousing entirely protecting the same excepting a portion of the saidmanual device, which is left exposed.

6. The combination, with an electric-light circuit and a number ofelectric incandescent lamps arranged in multiple arc therein, of anelectro-magnet A connected in the said circuit, an armattire-carryinglever B, a spring for normally holding the armature of the said leveraway from the poles of the magnet, an adjustingscrew for said spring, alever 5, which is tripped by the movement of the armature-lever, acircuit-restoring lever 7, electricallyconnected with said lever 5, acontact-block for said lever 7, and a conductor, as spring l,electrically connected to said magnet and normally in contact with thesaid lever 5, but from which conductor the lever 5 is separated whentripped by the movementof the said armature-lever B.

7. The combination, with an electric circuit and a number ofincandescent lamps connected therein in multiple are, of theelectromagnet A, the armatnre-leverll, carrying the armature Z), thespring 0, for controlling said armature-lever, the regulating-screw Dfor said spring 0, the tripping-lever 5, in contact with the armattire-lever, the spring i, normally pressing against saidtripping-lever 5 and electrically connected with the said magnet andnormally pressing against the lever 5, but from which the said lever maybe separated, the circuit-restorin g lever 7, electrically connectedwith the tripping-lever 5, and the contact-blocks in the lamp-circuit.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

FRIEDERICH MULLER. JAMES G. GREENE.

Witnesses:

JOSEPH F. JAQUITH, GEO. R. KULER.

